A poem of 120 stanzas, it is one of Kālidāsa's most famous works. The work is divided into two parts, Purva-megha and Uttara-megha. It recounts how a yakṣa, a subject of King Kubera, after being exiled for a year to Central India for neglecting his duties, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife at Alaka on Mount Kailāsa in the Himālaya mountains. The accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud will see on its northward course to the city ofAlakā, where his wife awaits his return. In Sanskrit literature, the poetic conceit used in the Meghaduta spawned the genre of Sandesa Kavya or messenger poems, most of which are modeled on the Meghaduta. Examples include the Hamsa-sandesha, in which Rama asks a Hansa Bird to carry a message to Sita, describing sights along the journey. In 1813, the poem was first translated into English by Horace Hayman Wilson. Since then, it has been translated several times into various languages. As with the other major works of Sanskrit literature, the most famous traditional commentary on the poem is by Mallinātha. The great scholar of Sanskrit literature, Arthur Berriedale Keith, wrote of this poem: "It is difficult to praise too highly either the brilliance of the description of the cloud’s progress or the pathos of the picture of the wife sorrowful and alone. Indian criticism has ranked it highest among Kalidasa’s poems for brevity of expression, richness of content, and power to elicit sentiment, and the praise is not undeserved." An excerpt is quoted in Canadian director Deepa Mehta's film, Water. The poem was also the inspiration for Gustav Holst's The Cloud Messenger Op. 30. Simon Armitage appears to reference Meghaduta in his poem ‘Lockdown’. It is believed the picturesque Ramtek near Nagpur has inspired Kalidas to write the poem.
Visualisation of Meghadūta
Meghadūta describes several scenes and is a rich source of inspiration for many artists. An example are the drawings by Nana Joshi. Composer Fred Momotenko wrote the composition 'Cloud-Messenger', music for a multimedia performance with recorder, dance, projected animation and electronics in surround audio. The world premiere was at Festival November Music, with Hans Tuerlings, Jasper Kuipers, Jorge Isaac and dancers Gilles Viandier and Daniela Lehmann.
Editions
. Introduction, text with English verse translation, and assorted footnotes.
. Sanskrit text, with introduction and some critical notes in Latin.
With Sanskrit text, English translation and more extensive notes separately.
. A prose translation.
. German translation.
. Hayman's translation, with notes and translation accompanying the Sanskrit text.
. Text with Mallinātha's commentary Sanjīvanī. Separate sections for English translation, explanation of Sanskrit phrases, and other notes.
Translations
The Meghadūta has been translated many times in many Indian languages.
Dr. Jogindranath Majumdar translated Meghaduta in Bengali keeping its original 'Mandakranta Metre' for the first time published in 1969
Acharya Dharmanand Jamloki Translated Meghduta in Garhwali and was well known for his work.
